No such thing as an underdog when Larrañaga and Izzo’s teams face off
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo knows better than to consider his ninth-seeded Spartans an underdog against No. 8 seed University of Miami on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Although some TV commentators — and former President Barack Obama — picked the Spartans to beat the Hurricanes, Izzo is well aware that UM’s dancing, fun-loving coach Jim Larrañaga can work miracles in March with players often lacking the pedigree of those who wear Spartan green.
Eleven years ago, Larranaga took a band of mid-major kids from commuter school George Mason and rocked the college basketball establishment in one of the most memorable Final Four runs in NCAA Tournament history.
The 11th-seeded Patriots busted brackets all over the nation with a 75-65 first-round upset of Izzo’s sixth-seeded Michigan State team, which had been to the Final Four the previous year.
George Mason, which had never won an NCAA Tournament game, was determined to prove it belonged after TV analyst Billy Packer said the Patriots didn’t deserve to get an at-large bid.
The Patriots shot 59 percent against Michigan State and two nights later shocked defending national champion North Carolina in the second round.
They then beat Wichita State and eliminated tournament favorite UConn in the Elite Eight with an 86-84 overtime thriller before losing to eventual champion Florida.
Though it all, Larrañaga preached fun.
He organized a whiffle ball game in a hotel ballroom. He urged players to mingle with fans during practices.
That lively atmosphere continues with this Miami team as it prepares for Friday night’s game. On Wednesday night, the coach held two team-bonding activities at the hotel.
One was a gameshow between the big men and the guards consisting of questions about the Michigan State scouting report. In the other, each player had to turn to a teammate and tell him something he appreciates about him.
“Coach is still saying the same thing he told that George Mason team — ‘Seize the moment, have a lot of fun,’ ” said UM assistant coach James Johnson, who was on Larrañaga’s Patriots staff, as was UM associate head coach Chris Caputo. “Preparing for Michigan State has been similar to back then, too, because it’s still Tom Izzo, still a great rebounding team, they still push the ball in transition.”
Larrañaga and his players were loose at their public practice on Thursday before heading to the University of Tulsa gym (home of Larrañaga’s UM predecessor, Frank Haith) for a private workout.
“What I really enjoyed was walking out on the practice court [Thursday] with our UM band playing a Gloria Estefan song, ‘The Rhythm is Gonna Get You,’ because the second I heard that … knowing our team is representing our university and city, competing against Tom Izzo and the great tradition he’s built at Michigan State, it’s very exciting and I want our guys to enjoy it,” Larrañaga said.
Like his Patriots in 2006, these Hurricanes feel they have something to prove despite a résumé that includes signature wins over North Carolina, Duke and Virginia. When the bracket was announced, TV analyst Seth Davis said he was looking forward to the second-round matchup between Michigan State and Kansas.
“I guess he hasn’t seen us play,” Larrañaga shouted into the microphone at the selection watch party.
The coaching matchup is one of the key storylines of Friday night’s game. Larrañaga, 67, and Izzo, 62, go back more than three decades. Asked about their relationship Thursday, Larrañaga regaled reporters with a 1986 recruiting tale.
“I took the head coach job at Bowling Green State University in 1986 and Tom was an assistant at Michigan State at the time,” Larrañaga said.
“My first encounter with them was when we identified a player named Steve Smith, who was out of Detroit. … My staff and I started recruiting him very, very hard.
“We went to Steve’s home in September of his senior year, offered Steve a scholarship, and he told me he was seriously considering Bowling Green unless — I said, ‘Unless what?’ He said, ‘Unless Michigan State offers me a scholarship because they’re my favorite. Magic Johnson is my hero and if they offer me, that’s where I’m going.’ ”
Larrañaga lost that battle but has beaten Izzo the past two times they played — with George Mason in the 2006 tournament and with UM in the 2012 ACC-Big Ten Challenge in Coral Gables, the only meeting between the schools.
Izzo joked that maybe being a lower seed this time “is good luck, because we were the higher seed then. Jim’s a good coach, he’s a guy I’ve known for a long time, a good guy. He’s done a good job there. But it’s OK not to like him for a weekend.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 7:48 PM with the headline "No such thing as an underdog when Larrañaga and Izzo’s teams face off."